Automated systems have been developed for the processing of various types of frozen confections in assembly line fashion to produce automatically, and at relatively high speed, frozen confections for the consumer market. Such apparatus includes, for example, various types of ice cream extruders, sticking machines, slicing machines and chill tunnels, all arranged to provide for assembly line processing in which ice cream or other frozen confection is extruded or shaped, frozen and enrobed with chocolate coating and even top decorated with candy or additional frozen chocolate or the like. Machines of this type are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,857,252; 3,822,623; and 3,761,213. Such processing lines provide for substantially continuous operation with an uninterrupted output flow of completed confections.
One frozen confection which has recently found response in the retail consumer market is a small, perhaps one inch by one half inch by one half, size confection formed of ice cream with chocolate coating and top decoration. For retail consumption these bite size pieces are packaged in cartons. These cartons have included most usually an array of eight or ten confection pieces or a three by four compartmented array of confection pieces. Typically the carton may be fomed from blown extuded plastic. The completed confection pieces pass through a continuous assembly line process which is initiated at an extruder in which ice cream is extruded and sliced into small pieces onto conveyor carrying plates, which transport the soft ice cream pieces through a freezing tunnel for carefully controlled dwell times to freeze the pieces to appropriate hardness. After leaving this initial freezing tunnel, the frozen ice cream pieces are passed through a chocolate enrober which completely coats each piece with chocolate and the pieces then are passed through an auxiliary chill tunnel to harden the chocolate coating. The final stage in the processing involves conveying the now frozen chocolate covered pieces under a top decorator to provide for top decoration, for example, by forming wiggly chocolate lines or decorative confection lines on the top surface. In this final stage the rectangular confections are, of necessity, aligned with their long axis parallel to the direction of movement of the conveyor. In a typical configuration there are four columns of confection arriving at the end of the top decorating stage of the assembly.
Since this confection manufacturing process is essentially continuous, it is necessary that all of these processing stages, as well as any subsequent stages, have the capacity of handling the confections at the same production rate. A high production rate is, of course, advantageous and the production for bite size frozen confection pieces is typically 600 pieces per minute emerging from the end of the conveyor line at the top decorator stage.
The finished confections are packed in rectilinear arrays in the previously mentioned cartons. At the present time this is accomplished in a manual process employing fifteen or more packers at the end of the assembly line to pack into cartons the six hundred confections per minute coming off the assembly line. Such an expenditure of labor constitutes a substantial cost component in the overall pricing of the confections.
The present invention is directed to apparatus for automatically conveying and packing frozen confection pieces into rectilinear arrays in a container (e.g., a carton including a confection tray) suitable for retail distribution. The apparatus is designed to operate at high speed with a minimum of operator involvement. Provision is made for isolating the initial manufacturing stages of the production process from the packaging process so that any interruption in the packaging process does not back up the entire assembly line of the confection manufacturing process itself. Additionally, provisions have been included to enable replacement of high wear components, without extensive disassembly of the apparatus.